Cubs MLB Roster

Cubs Organizational Depth Chart
40-Man Roster Info

40 players are on the MLB RESERVE LIST (roster is full) 

28 players on MLB RESERVE LIST are ACTIVE, and twelve players are on OPTIONAL ASSIGNMENT to minors. 

Last updated 3-26-2024
 
* bats or throws left
# bats both

PITCHERS: 15
Yency Almonte
Adbert Alzolay 
Javier Assad
Jose Cuas
Kyle Hendricks
* Shota Imanaga
Caleb Kilian
Mark Leiter Jr
* Luke Little
Julian Merryweather
Hector Neris 
* Drew Smyly
* Justin Steele
Jameson Taillon
* Jordan Wicks

CATCHERS: 2
Miguel Amaya
Yan Gomes

INFIELDERS: 7
* Michael Busch 
Nico Hoerner
Nick Madrigal
* Miles Mastrobuoni
Christopher Morel
Dansby Swanson
Patrick Wisdom

OUTFIELDERS: 4
* Cody Bellinger 
Alexander Canario
# Ian Happ
Seiya Suzuki
* Mike Tauchman 

OPTIONED: 12 
Kevin Alcantara, OF 
Michael Arias, P 
Ben Brown, P 
Alexander Canario, OF 
Pete Crow-Armstrong, OF 
Brennen Davis, OF 
Porter Hodge, P 
* Matt Mervis, 1B 
Daniel Palencia, P 
Keegan Thompson, P 
Luis Vazquez, INF 
Hayden Wesneski, P 

 



 

Minor League Rosters
Rule 5 Draft 
Minor League Free-Agents

A Little Edge? Might As Well

With Angel Guzman scheduled to get the start next Tuesday at Pittsburgh, but with a 5th starter not needed again until May 12th at Philadelphia, here is what the Cubs should do to give themselves a little bit of an edge, although they probably won't: TUEDAY MAY 2 - Recall Angel Guzman from Iowa to start the game at PIT, and option SS Ronny Cedeno to AAA Iowa so that he can play every day. WEDNESDAY MAY 3 - No matter how he does on Tuesday at PIT, option Angel Guzman back to Iowa, and bring up an extra bat (6th man) for the bench until a 5th starter is needed again in ten days. It can't be Cedeno, because he has to remain on optional assignment for at least ten days unless he is recalled to replace a player who is placed on the DL, but it could be Angel Pagan, Scott Moore, or Buck Coats (all are on the 40-man roster), or even Micah Hoffpauir or Mike Fontenot, if the Cubs open up a spot on the 40-man roster by transferring Kerry Wood or Juan Mateo to the 60-day DL, or by recalling Mark Prior from his optional assignment and immediately placing him on the 60. (If Wood or Mateo are transferred to the 60 to open up a spot for Hoffpauir, either would be eligible to be reactivated on May 31st, because they were placed on the 15-day DL on April 1st, and time spent on the 15 counts toward time spent on the 60). Meanwhile, Gooz would get a start for Iowa at New Orleans on Sunday night May 6th (on normal four days rest) to help him stay stretched out as a starter. Then... SATURDAY MAY 12- Angel Guzman--or possibly Sean Marshall or Carlos Marmol, if Guzman is ineffective--gets recalled to get the start at PHI, and remains in the Cubs starting rotation until further notice. At this time, a position player would need to be cut, but Uncle Lou and the Cubs would at least have a six-man bench for every game over the ten-day period May 2-11. And that could mean the difference in an extra inning game where a PH or PR is needed in a key spot, and that one extra win thanks to that "6th man on the bench" could make a difference come the end of the season. You never know. As insignificant as it might seem, the Cubs should play for every little edge they can get.

Comments

Very interesting, but you are hoping that the Cubs might be smart enough to pull this off. Does this burn alot of player's options?

You burn so many player options this way though, handcuffing you later down the road with these young kids.....

Players have option "years", not option events. This should not impact anyone's options. Sounds good to me.

player options go by years, you can send Guzman down and up as much as you want within a year. We already burned Guzman's option by sending him down which is no big deal because due to his service time that option year wouldn't have been available next year as is. Angel Pagan? who cares Scott Moore? not a big deal Buck Coats? who cares Micah Hoffpauir? old for a prospect, who cares Mike Fontenot? old for a prospect, who cares Ronny Cedeno? who cares Carlos Marmol and Sean Marshall? might want to be careful on those I suppose.

Phil, Can you email this article to Jim Hendry? Or better yet, scrawl it on scrap paper and let a carrier pigeon deliver it on his desk, randomly, and let him think the gods sent it to him. Or better yet-- carve it into his skin. Yeah, that's a good one.

Right, so activating Marshall on the big league club would start his second option year. Or do the three years start when he first gets called up? Also, calling up some of those guys starts their option years ticking, no?a

For what it's worth, Fontenot has played a bunch of different positions in Iowa this year-- SS, 2B, 3B, and LF (and maybe even RF). I have no idea how well he's played them.

Post 7 Romero: Just so you are aware: Hendry is out in Hollywood this week working on the revival of the Leave it to Beaver TV show where he is renewing his role as Wally's friend Lumpy.

It's possible that I overlooked the answer scrolling through the 200+ comments for the previous post, but I'm confused about something. According to the Cubs web site, Prior is still on the 40-man roster. Now every report I've seen indicates he'll be out for at least the year, and if I understand the rules correctly, moving him to the 60-day DL would clear a spot on the 40-man roster. So why don't they do that? Is it because he would begin accruing MLB service time if they DL-ed him?

Yeah, that's part of the reason JimN, the other is that there's no need for another 40-man spot at the moment. No reason to make the move until you have to. If it comes up though, it's certainly a possibility, although the team might resist to squeeze out another year of service time. I believe if they keep him till Aug. 15th down on the farm, they save themselves a year.

Jace, Your patience will be rewarded. If the former Senator gets full cooperation from this guy like he says, there's going to be plenty of juicy stuff coming out of his report. I still haven't heard if the results of his investigation are going to be made public or not. A lot of current big leaguers better hope they don't.

"The Cubs’ problems are greatly overstated. They have managed to underperform their indicators by more than a win a week, and that won’t last. Just two NL teams have a better run differential than their +13, and I expect they’ll be leading the NL Central by the All-Star break." -- Joe Sheehan.

Wes - Man, I hope you're right. I have already given up on the Mitchell investigation. It just seems like everything that is coming out about where that investigation is going is negative. I feel like the feds are going to get to the bottom of this before Mitchell will. I really hope that you're right, though.

Jordan — April 27, 2007 @ 3:46 pm Right, so activating Marshall on the big league club would start his second option year. Or do the three years start when he first gets called up? Also, calling up some of those guys starts their option years ticking, no?a ================================ JORDAN: Because he was optioned to the minors during ST and was not recalled by April 21st, Marshall's option year for this year has already been exercised because he has spent at least 19 days since the start of the MLB regular season on optional assignment to the minors. Bringing him up and then sending him down again has no impact on that. Same goes for Marmol, Pagan, Moore, Coats, Soto, Prior, Rapada, Cherry, Novoa, Dopirak, and Samardzija. Their '07 minor league options have been burned. Guzman had already used up three minor league options through the 2006 season, but he got a 4th option year in 2007 because he had not completed five "full seasons" through 2006 due to time spent on the DL in 2004 and 2005. So even if he spent zero time in the minors in 2007, the 4th option he gets this year would not be available again in 2008.because by the end of this season he will have spent five "full seasons" on an active (regular season) minor league or major league roster. So there is no point in conserving Guzman's options. As for Hoffpauir and Fontenot, both are in their mid-20's, so starting the "option clock" ticking on them is no big worry. In fact, Fontenot used up one minor league option year (2005) before the Cubs outrighted him to the minors after the '05 season., so he would have two left if he were to be added to the 40. Hoffpauir would have three. Here is the minor league option status of players on the Cubs 40-man roster who can be optioned to the minors without having to give their permission (have less than five years MLB service time) : MINOR LEAGUE OPTION STATUS as of 4-27-2007: * Can only be optioned to minors after clearing Major League Waivers ONE MINOR LEAGUE OPTION LEFT: * Ronny Cedeno Angel Guzman * Rich Hill * Roberto Novoa (will have no options left ST 2008) * Will Ohman * Geovany Soto (will have no options left ST 2008) * Michael Wuertz TWO MINOR LEAGUE OPTIONS LEFT: * Neal Cotts Brian Dopirak (will have one option left ST 2008) Carlos Marmol (will have one option left ST 2008) Scott Moore (will have one option left ST 2008) Angel Pagan (will have one option left ST2008) Felix Pie (15 days toward using up 2007 option) * Mark Prior (will have one option left ST 2008) * Ryan Theriot THREE MINOR LEAGUE OPTIONS LEFT: Rocky Cherry (will have two options left ST 2008) Buck Coats (will have two options left ST 2008) Sean Marshall (will have two options left ST 2008) Juan Mateo * Matt Murton Clay Rapada, LHP (will have two options left ST 2008) FOUR MINOR LEAGUE OPTIONS LEFT: Jeff Samardzija, RHP (will have three options left ST 2008) ========================== Here are the players in the Cubs organization who are eligible to be minor league free-agents if not added to the 40-man roster by 10-15-07, and the players eligible for selection in the next Rule 5 Draft if not added to the 40-man roster by 11-20-07. MINOR LEAGUE FREE-AGENTS IF NOT ADDED TO 40-MAN ROSTER BY 10-15-07 Chris Amador, OF Federico Baez, RHP (6Y MLFA after 2007) Cory Bailey, RHP Oscar Bernard, RHP (6Y MLFA after 2007) Gary Cates, INF Robinson Chirinos, INF (6Y MLFA after 2007) Jorge Cortes, OF Koyie Hill, C Ben Howard, RHP Geoff Jones, LHP Mike Kinkade, IF-OF Josh Kroeger, OF Albenis Machado, INF Mike Mahoney, C Ryan O’Malley, LHP Edgar Omana, LHP Carmen Pignatiello, LHP Carlos Rojas, SS (6Y MLFA after 2007) Issmael Salas, INF (6Y MLFA after 2007) Les Walrond, LHP John Webb, RHP ELIGIBLE FOR 2007 RULE 5 DRAFT IF NOT ADDED TO 40-MAN ROSTER BY 11-20-07 Justin Berg, RHP Todd Blackford, RHP Jerry Blevins, LHP Matt Craig, 3B Darin Downs, LHP Mike Fontenot, 2B Jake Fox, C Alberto Garcia, 1B-OF Luke Hagerty, LHP Adam Harben, RHP Kevin Hart, RHP Ryan Harvey, OF Jim Henderson, RHP Micah Hoffpauir, 1B Grant Johnson, RHP Scott Koerber, LHP Tim Layden, LHP J. R. Mathes, LHP Casey McGehee, 3B Adalberto Mendez, RHP Mario Mercedes, C Ryan Norwood, 1B Leonel Perez, RHP Billy Petrick, RHP Jose Pina, RHP Elvin Puello, 3B Tony Richie, C Alan Rick, C Joel Santo, RHP Paul Schappert, LHP Chris Shaver, LHP Jemel Spearman, INF Nate Spears, 2B Jesus Valdez, OF Chris Walker, OF Randy Wells, RHP

JimN — April 27, 2007 @ 4:22 pm It’s possible that I overlooked the answer scrolling through the 200+ comments for the previous post, but I’m confused about something. According to the Cubs web site, Prior is still on the 40-man roster. Now every report I’ve seen indicates he’ll be out for at least the year, and if I understand the rules correctly, moving him to the 60-day DL would clear a spot on the 40-man roster. So why don’t they do that? Is it because he would begin accruing MLB service time if they DL-ed him? ================================= JIM: Mark Prior is on the Cubs 40-man roster, but he was placed on the DL after he was optioned to AAA, so he is on the Iowa DL and thus is not presently accruing MLB service time. The only reason to place a player on the 60-day DL (which is only available for use from March 1st through the end of the regular season, and all players on the 60 must be placed back on the "active roster" by November 20th) is to make a spot available on the 40-man roster for another player, and as of right now, the Cubs don't need Prior's spot. If they do need his spot later in the year, then they can "recall" him from his optional assignment at that time and immediately place him on the 60-day DL, which would accomplish two things: Make Prior's spot on the 40-man roster available for a player acquired in a trade or from the minors, AND, start Prior's MLB service time accrual again. The thing with Prior is that he has 4+131 (years+ days) of MLB service time coming into the 2007 season, and he needs 41 days of MLB service time in 2007 to get to five years, which would allow him to refuse an optional assignment to the minors in 2008 AND keep him on track to be a FA after the 2008 season. However, as long as he is on optional assignment to Iowa, he can't get those 41 days. And if he doesn't, he would go into the 2008 season with less than five years of MLB service time, and thus would not be eligible to be a FA until after the 2009 season. With less than five years MLB service time going into next season, he also could get optioned to the minors again and that could theoretically delay his free-agency until after.the 2010 season! But all of that is probably moot, because it's doubtful that the Cubs will offer Prior arbitration after this season. That's because even if he got a full 20% maximum allowable salary cut, he would still get $2.86M for 2008, anfd I don't believe the Cubs would want to commit that kind of money to a pitcher who might not even pitch next season. So the most-likely scenario is that the Cubs will non-tender Prior (not offer him arbitration) next December and then try and re-sign him to a contract with a low base salary plus incentives (like they did with Wood and Miller after last season). But to do that the Cubs have to first non-tender Prior, and that makes him a free-agent eligible to sign with anybody. Whether he would freely choose to re-up with the Cubs is a big unknown. My guess is that Prior will get non-tendered by the Cubs next December, the Cubs will offer him a low base salary plus incentives, and he will sign a very similar deal with his hometown Padres instead.

Rob G. and AZ Phil: Thanks for the explanation guys. I suspected it might be something like that, but I wasn't sure. I have to admit that despite being a baseball fan since I was old enough to say "Hey Hey!," there are still a few things about the game that I find confusing, such as the finer points of the player transaction rules. If I had known as a child that I would eventually need to become a lawyer in order to follow the game, I might have taken up stamp collecting instead of baseball fandom. Fortunately, guys like you have made it a little less confusing. Thanks.

let me add, that while it's unlikely they'll non-tender him and Prior agrees to stay on, there is that small chance. Because even if they do non-tender him but do manage to re-sign him, the service time doesn't change, so on that off chance it does happen might as well try to save a year of service time. Also Buck Coats and Brian Dopirak are still rotting on our 40-man, I'd start with them if we need a spot.

I realize $2.8 million is a somewhat hefty price tag for someone who may or may not pitch next season.......but come on, seriously.........this is still the same FO that decided to give Glendon Rusch and Neifi Perez $3.3 and $2.5 million respectively. Plus, Jim Hendry will probably be out of a job next year, this might not even be his decision to make.

Speaking of Dopirak, he should be playing for Tennessee but he left in the middle of a game ten days ago with a leg-muscle tweak and hasn't been back. That's why Jake Fox has been playing first.

Dope has been in the starting lineup at 1B a couple of times this past week; they're easing him back into games.

Recent comments

  • crunch (view)

    madrigal at 3rd...morel at DH.

    making room for madrigal or/and masterboney to get a significant amount of ABs is a misuse of the roster.  if it needed to get taken care of this offseason, they had tons of time to figure that out.

    morel played almost exclusively at 3rd in winter ball and they had him almost exclusively there all spring when he wasn't DH'ing.

    madrigal doing a good job with the glove for a bit over 2 chances per game...is that worth more than what he brings with the bat 4-5 PA a game?  it's 2024 and we got glenn beckert 2.0 manning 3rd base.

    this is a tauchman or cooper DH situation based on bat, alone.  cooper is 3/7 with a double off eovaldi if you want to play the most successful matchup.

    anyway, i hope this is a temporary thing, not business as usual for the rest of the season.  it will be telling if morel is not used at 3rd when an extreme fly ball pitcher like imanaga is on the mound.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    There are two clear "logjams" in the Cubs minor league pipeline at the present time, namely AA outfielders (K. Alcantara, C. Franklin, Roederer, Pagan, Pinango, Beesley, and Nwogu) and Hi-A infielders (J. Rojas, P. Ramirez, Howard, R. Morel, Pertuz, R. Garcia, and Spence, although Morel has been getting a lot of reps in the outfield in addition to infield). So it is possible that you might see a trade involving one of the extra outfielders at AA and/or one of the extra infielders at Hi-A in the next few days. 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    18-year old SS Jefferson Rojas almost made the AA Tennessee Opening Day roster, and he is a legit shortstop, so I would expect him to be an MLB Top 100 prospect by mid-season. 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Among the relievers in the system, I expect RHRP Hunter Bigge at AAA Iowa and RHRP Ty Johnson at South Bend to have breakout seasons on 2024, and among the starters I see LHP Drew Gray and RHP Will Sanders at South Bend and RHP Naz Mule at ACL Cubs as the guys who will make the biggest splash. Also, Jaxon Wiggins is throwing bullpen sides, so once he is ready for game action he could be making an impact at Myrtle Beach by June.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    I expect OF Christian Franklin to have a breakout season at AA Tennessee in 2024. In another organization that doesn't have PCA, Caissie, K. Alcantara, and Canario in their system, C. Franklin would be a Top 10 prospect. 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    The Reds trading Joe Boyle for Sam Moll at last year's MLB Trade Deadline was like the Phillies trading Ben Brown to the Cubs for David Robertson at the MLB TD in 2022. 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Javier Assad started the Lo-A game (Myrtle Beach versus Stockton) on the Cubs backfields on Wednesday as his final Spring Training tune-up. He was supposed to throw five innings / 75 pitches. However, I was at the minor league road games at Fitch so I didn't see Assad pitch. 

  • crunch (view)

    cards put j.young on waivers.

    they really tried to make it happen this spring, but he put up a crazy bad slash of .081/.244/.108 in 45PA.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Seconded!!!

  • crunch (view)

    another awesome spring of pitching reports.  thanks a lot, appreciated.